Briefly discuss the complexities of American foreign policy. What historical events led to the U.S. becoming the world hegemon? What conflicting goals impact U.S. foreign policy?

Question

What complicated moral questions impact interventionalist and isolationist policies? 

Answer 1

It is important to realize that, prior to World War II, the United States followed an isolationist foreign policy; this is to say that the country largely did not get involved in the affairs of other countries. This all changed when the U.S. was dragged into World War II by the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the aftermath of World War II, the United States and the USSR (Soviet Union) remained as the two predominant powers on the global stage, with political systems reflecting vastly different interests and functions. The US was a capitalist democracy, and the USSR was a Communist autocratic system. Throughout the next few decades, the Cold War was fought between these two powers (we refer to a system dominated by two competing powers as 'bipolar') in a series of proxy wars. Direct military confrontation between the US and the USSR never occurred, but rather both sides threw their weight behind smaller warring parties. Think of the Vietnam War, or the split between East and West Germany. When the USSR fell, the US was left as the single global hegemon. Although the US suffered some foreign policy hiccups in the 90's, such as the Gulf War and Balkans debacle, it was a period of relative calm. This, of course, all changed on 9/11, when the US turned its predominant foreign policy attention towards combatting terrorism and spreading democracy, which in turn answers the question of the conflicting goals of US foreign policy.